Canadian student newspaper settles lawsuit, retracts calling politician racist

by Sydney Smith May 02, 2019 05:00 AM EST

Tags: Apologies & Retractions, Canada, Libel

(Credit: The Gateway)

Canadian student publication The Gateway apologized to politician Kerry Diotte, a member of Parliament, for referring to him as a racist. The site also retracted the two articles from Nov. 2018. The Gateway is the student journalism magazine and website for the University of Alberta.

The Gateway‘s editor-in-chief, Oumar Salifou, told iMediaEthics by e-mail, “We’ve settled the lawsuit with Kerry Diotte. I cannot go into further detail about the case for confidentiality reasons.” iMediaEthics wrote to Diotte’s lawyer, Jonathan Denis, who confirmed the settlement.

The first article reported that Diotte “has a history of making racist remarks” and the second article was an editorial, according to the Toronto Star. Diotte sued the Gateway back in November for $150,000; it apologized in November as well.

The Gateway apology, published April 30, reads:

“On November 3, 2018 and November 5, 2018, the University of Alberta Gatewaynewspaper published articles online about Edmonton-Griesbach Member of Parliament Kerry Diotte that described him as ‘a racist.’
“That characterization of Mr. Diotte is false, damaging to his reputation, and caused Mr. Diotte and his family unwarranted embarrassment.
“The Gateway sincerely apologizes to Mr. Diotte for this wrongful characterization and retracts the offending articles.”